Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Kamara and Auvray Called Up

Already without Shavar Thomas for the second game of the season against Chicago, the team announced today that two more players would not be in Chicago for the game, instead joining their national teams for games that weekend. Kei Kamara will be playing in the most important match that weekend, as he's been recalled to the Sierra Leone national team for their qualifier on the 25th when they travel to play Niger. Kamara had been left off the team for their last qualifier, a 0-0 draw with South Africa after comments he made about the Sierra Leone FA. Under a new coach though, Kamara has been recalled and will look to help the Leone Stars get into a position where they can potentially qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations.

The other call up is for Stephane Auvray. Auvray will miss the game as he and the Guadeloupe national team will play a friendly against Racing Club de Lens. Since Guadeloupe is not a member of FIFA, most of their games are against club teams in France. They are a member of CONCACAF, which allows them to compete in the Gold Cup this summer. This will be used as a bit of a warm up for them as they head towards this summer.

The loss of those two are likely to hurt a little more than the loss of Thomas, but all three could potentially be felt in the second game of the season. While Teal Bunbury has been cleared to play, whether he'll start could be a question and KC's depth could be tested even more. Kamara's call up seems set to hurt the most. With the seemingly impending signing of Milos Stojcev, he can help plug the gap in the midfield. And for Thomas it's no guarantee that he'll be starting this weekend out in LA anyways. Congrats to these 3 though on their call ups to represent their national teams.